While this may upset Kathy, she understands it. Although Lizzy is young—a tween or young teen—she has had to pick up the slack of her mother's failed parenting. It is Lizzy who cleans the house, Lizzy who wakes her mom up in the morning, Lizzy who seemingly does everything. Kathy is not so far gone that she doesn't recognize this either and she hates herself for how much Lizzy does, and is more than a little angry at Lizzy for it as well.
In the best element of The Monster, this story comes out in a series of flashbacks as the women are stuck in the car. These flashbacks are the movie at its most raw and brutal. No amount of evil creature in the woods is quite as terrifying as these two people who should have the most loving of relationships cursing at each other and declaring their hatred for one another in a way that is significantly more serious than just teen angst.
But, there is an evil creature in the woods. Moreover, that creature seems to have prompted Kathy's tire blowout and what may have also been a collision with a wolf. At minimum, there is a bloody wolf lying in the middle of the road post-breakdown.Although Kathy does make the utterly inexplicable horror movie choice to take the road no one else goes on anymore, she is not so foolish to leave her cell phone at home. Even so, the mother and daughter are off the beaten path and a wreck on the nearby highway delays the arrival of a tow truck and ambulance.
The Monster is just that sort of movie – for every smart thing it does, it can't help but offer up one or two dumb things. Lizzy and Kathy are hyper-aware of their surroundings except for when the presumed dead wolf mysteriously disappears from right in front of their car. At one point they actually see the evil creature that is haunting them and then, although Kathy and Lizzy are looking right at it, miss seeing the fact that it leaves.
Bertino is less interested, it seems, in the evil creature tormenting the two main characters than he is in exploring their relationship. The women being stuck in the car, just the two of them, for an extended period allows for that exploration and both Kazan and Ballentine deliver moments that are heart-wrenching.
As long as the tale remains just the two of them in that car, it is utterly engrossing and any of the more silly elements can be forgiven. However, that all falters as the movie progresses, the characters leave the close confines of the car, and help does finally arrive. The creature winds up looking distinctly like a human in a monster suit, and the people who are supposed to help Lizzy and Kathy are less than useful.
One reading of the film would turn the evil creature into an allegory for alcoholism, working the wolf as well as the tow truck and ambulance into the argument. Although that slant may initially add more of an explanation for what takes place, it winds up trivializing both the creature and the disease (and sounds a little silly). And yet, as the film offers up no insights into the creature whatsoever, it is an inescapable reading, whether one subscribes to it or not.